8 Critical Mistakes The DC Film Universe Has Made

5. ...And Not Working Well With Others

Flash Batman Slow
Warner Bros.

Director trouble in the DCEU stretches back as far as April 2015, when Game Of Thrones veteran Michelle McLaren departed Wonder Woman. It's not uncommon for directors to leave projects, but it is uncommon to have so much disruption in a single franchise - and this is something that's hindering the DCEU.

And it all came to a head in 2016 - we had not one, but two directors leave the same film within a matter of months, and heard rumblings of studio Warner Bros. apparently being unsatisfied with the way helmers Zack Snyder and David Ayer were handling their respective 2016 films.

Seth Grahame-Smith left The Flash, citing creative differences. Rick Famuyiwa joined, then left shortly after - also creative differences. Michelle McLaren jumped off Wonder Woman for the same reason, and Snyder/Ayer reportedly clashed with Warner Bros. over the direction that Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad should take, with the latter film even receiving numerous behind-the-scenes cuts.

That "creative differences" excuse is so overused and so vague that it's almost certainly a cover-up at this point, but if that genuinely is the problem, shouldn't these major creative differences - ones big enough to cause somebody to jump ship - be ironed out before the director even signs the dotted line? Is it just incompetence on the part of the studio?

Regardless of what is actually going on here, directors are hired to do a job - so let them do it. Warner Bros. didn't fully trust Ayer with Suicide Squad, so attempted to 'save' that film by injecting it with a Guardians-esque tone, complete with soundtrack, at the last minute - and it didn't work out.

Here's hoping The Flash doesn't follow suit...

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!